BRITISH bobbies are looking rather blue these days. Their budget may be cut by as much as 25-40%. Crime has fallen, but officers’ workload has not. According to the Metropolitan Police some four-fifths of calls that they take are not to do with crime but require close attention even so. And those offences that have increased in frequency, such as domestic violence, need particularly careful handling. But whereas forces around the world make better use of technology, Britain’s lag behind.

America does better, says Martin Innes at Cardiff University, probably because it has to: the country has many small police forces that have needed to learn to share information.